Recently, I traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, for the wedding of a relative. If a person knew me very well, they might have been surprised at how insistent I was on riding with someone else to the location, since I am used to getting around with ME behind the steering wheel! The reason I wanted to ride with someone else goes back to the last out-of-town wedding I attended. That wedding was for the daughter of long-time friends since college and was held in Texarkana at the First Methodist Church. I arrived at the church almost an hour early, wanting to have plenty of time to freshen up before alot of the other guests started arriving. After visiting the ladies' room, I took my seat in the sanctuary. In a few minutes, people started to come in, but I did not recognize anyone. Furthermore, everyone that came in had a definite Asian look, and none of them were speaking English. Then I saw an Asian woman come in with a young Asian girl dressed in a wedding gown. Since the bride I was expecting to see was born in Arkansas and had parents from Arkansas, I knew something was wrong. I got the invitation out of my purse, and took it up to someone who was preparing candles in the front of the church. I handed her the invitation, saying I was supposed to be at a wedding at the First Methodist Church in Texarkana at 2:00 PM, but none of the people here looked like who I was anticipating seeing. The candle lady studied the invitation briefly, and said, "You are at the First Methodist Church in Texarkana, Texas. This invitation is for the First Methodist Church in Texarkana, Arkansas. YIKES!!! Now what? As best she could, she told me how to get to the FMC on the Arkansas side of the town, and I raced over there as quickly as I could. Just moments before the bride walked down the aisle, I slipped into a pew in the back of the church---huffing and puffing and looking very much in disarray---not exactly the impression I wanted to leave on my old friends from college. So that is why for THIS expedition of "Goin' to the chapel", I wanted to ride with someone who knew their way around, so that I could sing "Goin' to the CORRECT chapel!" Miles of smiles! Tricia Turner (Photo disclaimer: Since I didn't have a signed model release form for the young couple in Nashville----and wasn't sure about how they would feel having their wedding photo on my website---I fuzzed out their images on purpose---one of the cool "special effects" you can do on the Picasa website!)
